


Halloween Prompt

by uruvielnumenesse



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 09:56:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16261829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uruvielnumenesse/pseuds/uruvielnumenesse
Summary: A letter for a Halloween arrives forcing Harry to rethink his relationship with Hermione.





	Halloween Prompt

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [HalloweenHarmonyComp2018](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/HalloweenHarmonyComp2018) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
> Harry is forced to go to the Weasley's Halloween haunted house, and he isn't happy about it. He decides not to dress up at all when he is called out by Hermione.
> 
> "You don't even look scary"
> 
> "I can still make you scream."
> 
> This piece was written for Something Wicked This Way Comes, a Harmony & Co Halloween One-Shot Competition. All canon characters, plots, dialogue, and situations from the Harry Potter series belongs to JK Rowling. I am not profiting from this work.

“Harry!”

A callused hand loosens its grip on the quill before writing furiously on parchment that is being duplicated by a spell. A stack that was precariously balanced on a desk began to wobble dangerously as the door was slammed open. 

Green eyes unknowingly softened as a frazzled woman entered the room.

“Hermione!” Harry mimicked. 

Having been friends with the pacing woman for many years, he already shifts his paperwork out of the way before Hermione accidentally disrupts his chaotically organized desk. Hermione places a scroll in front of him, her tan hand and neatly trimmed nails covering the majority of writing. 

“Do I even want to know?” His tone is mild but curious.

Hermione had a habit of bring a variety of knowledge to his door step. Things that he split into two categories, things he needed to know and things he wanted to know. 

Hermione rolled her eyes in good humor and she appeared more composed than normal which means that this scroll fell into the things he wanted to know category. 

“It’s the Weasley’s annual Halloween party.” She had said. 

Never mind, it was in the third category I don’t want to know. 

Hermione raised her arms and held the invitation out, yet Harry eyed it as if it were a dangerous magical creature.

Knowing who issued the invitation it was some gag waiting to be played out. 

“Just open it Harry. George spelled it, so I wouldn’t be able to open yours.” Hermione placed a hand on her hip in exasperation. 

Ever since the massive blowout between Harry and Ginny, Hermione had taken to fielding any mail that he received citing that it just wasn’t professional to received Howlers at work. She had developed a system that separated any personal mail and Auror mail. The only downside was how infamous her first attempts at fielding became. Her voice had risen decibels that was only matched by Ginny at her angriest. 

“If George doesn’t want you to see it I doubt I’d want to read what’s inside.” Still, he opened the parchment and was surprised to see a normal invitation.

“Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes formally invites you to our Halloween Bash where you can encounter the scariest wizards known to man in our haunted houses and mazes.” Harry reads out loud.

“Haunted Houses? How did George know about haunted houses, that’s an entirely muggle concept?” Hermione asks herself.

Harry continued on to read as Hermione was prone to answering her own questions. “You are encouraged to wear costumes and a winner will be selected at the end of the night for a mysterious grand prize.”

What he doesn’t tell her is the bright red script that informed Harry that he was to wear a couple’s costume with Hermione. 

The invitation tears itself up but Harry was focused on the last sentence.

A hot flush crept up on him.

Him and Hermione?

A couple?

Sure, he had moments where he wished there was something more between him and Hermione, but he doubted if she felt the same way.

“Harry, what did it say? Aside from what you already told me.” Hermione was oblivious to mess on Harry’s desk and stared at the red-faced man.

Harry coughs awkwardly into his fist. “Costumes, George wants people in costume pairs.”

Hermione hums thoughtfully. “While the idea sounds in theory I doubt the wizards have enough fairytales to inspire their costumes.”

Harry had to agree. One of the first Christmases after the war Hermione and Harry had exchanged fairytales with Ron. If the Tale of Beedle the Bard were real, then what else could be real.

Needless to say, Ron was shocked at the thick tomes of fairy tales that Hermione brought from her home. Her Australian bound parents kept her childhood books in hopes of passing it down to her children. 

Harry shrugs and places the invitation aside. At glance at the clock shows that it is nearly noon, it seemed that his morning was used up before Hermione strode into his office. 

“Want to grab lunch?”

With that the two leave for lunch, all Halloween thoughts gone.

Xx

 

The night of Halloween, Harry had every intention of laying on his sofa and listen to muggle radio and hang out sweets to the children who knocked out. Dressed in his sleep clothes, Harry almost didn’t answer the incessant knocking.

By the time he reached the doors, Harry barely opened his mouth before Hermione pushed her way into his house. 

His eyes were drawn to the cleavage that was hitched up to comical levels. 

“Red riding hood? Really?”

“Well, what do you plan on going as?” She asks. 

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” Hermione was confused.

“Nothing.”

“Harry.” 

“Hermione.” Nothing was as amusing as seeing her annoyed though a single look from the bushy haired witch forces Harry to cave.

“I’m not wearing any costume because I’m not going.”

Hermione gasps.

“What do you mean you’re not going? This is the first invite you’ve gotten from the Weasleys since you and Ginny separated. “

“It’s on Halloween, Hermione. I don’t want to celebrate a day that my parents died fighting Voldemort.” Harry had no desire to dress up and be fawned over on a day that he became the Boy-Who-Lived. It had worsened over the years.

The party wasn’t worth the scrutiny he faced on that specific day.

“You’ve never had any problem with it before. Why now?” Hermione countered.

“Because I just don’t want go. Leave it alone, Hermione.” A sliver of guilt edged into his chest at the crestfallen look.

“Besides,” Harry continued on lamely, “I don’t have a costume.”

Magically words to a magical woman.

Xx

With the promise to seek out Hermione at the Weasely’s Halloween Bash once he readied himself, Harry buttoned up the rest of his shirt. 

He managed to avoid the majority of the partygoers through a simple disguise. 

Truly, the wizarding world had gotten used to his famous scar, and glasses that without one he was an entirely different person. Ginny had been the only one to narrow her eyes as he passed through but let him pass without hassle. 

Managing to find Hermione, whose back was turned to him, Harry placed a hand on her shoulder causing her to shriek.

Harry bites back a snort when Hermione whirls around and smacks him in the shoulder.

“What is that?” 

Harry raised a brow and looked down at himself.

“My costume.”

Hermione gave him a look of disdain. Harry had only removed his glasses and combed his hair. A reverse Clark Kent. Something that had thoroughly befuddled the wizarding population.

“That’s literally the worst costume I’ve ever seen, it’s not even scary.”

“And yet it still made you scream.” 

The blush on Hermione’s face was worth forcing that sentence through his mouth.

Maybe Halloween this year wasn’t so bad after all. A roguish grin breaks across his face as he follows Hermione to the floating apples.


End file.
